Severe Pounding Headache During Bowel Movement

[mt_100]

I have had a problem for some time now and am now very worried.

Background:
I have had this on and off for quite some time, over a year.

I'm a 33 man and at the time it started I was 194 pounds and had cholesterol of 216. I admit I was out of shape. One thing to note is my tolerance for pain is very high.

I was tested for everything, CAT scans, bowel X-rays, scoped from one end to the other. Tried fiber, lots of fiber, Nothing. I gave up on answers about the time the symptoms subsided.

Since then, I shaped up. I am now 165 pounds, cholesterol of 136 and can run 4 miles a day. At no time during the workouts or other strenuous activity do I experience this issue or other issue.

Symptoms actually went away for quite a while, several months in fact, but are now back as of this last week and worse. I now can tell when I need to have a BM because it starts very mildly.

During the BM, without straining at all, it starts. It will start on the back of my neck as a small soreness or stiffness and very quickly I will feel my heartbeat in my neck. Within seconds the pounding in my head starts on the left side and goes up to the top and down the bottom. With each heartbeat there is excruciating searing pounding pain. A pain that feel like someone hooked a bicycle pump to the left side of my neck and is pushing pressure very hard into my head. Each heartbeat is torture and afterward it slowly subsides over a few hours until only a stiff sore neck remains. However this last time the dull headache lasted into the next day.

The pain is so severe I have blacked out once however I fight not to. I am not straining, pushing, or doing anything. Most of the time I am trying to relax. This happens with hard or soft movements and diarrhea. I would consider this pain to be a 8-9 out of 10. (A motorcycle accident with broken bones was a 6 to me for comparison sake)

I have tried to identify changes or habits that may have changed or repeated and so far cannot find something. I am truly worried that I will have a stroke or brain aneurysm during a bowel movement to the extent that I call my wife on the phone.

Can someone help? No doctors around here are able to.

[gemsofjen]

i failed to mention that i have a low pulse and heart rate normally, but when i get hit with these migraines from having to go to the bathroom my heart rate goes up to over 180.

[kenzieloper]

Me too normally low blood pressure but she this happens it goes up high.

Psuedoaneurysm is the closest thing I've found to explain it

[gemsofjen]

I have been suffering from Migraines for the last 6 years, That only come on when i have a bowel movement.. I am unable to get any answers myself.  i dont have to be constipated for it to come on. if my stomach starts to hurt up high in the abdomen thats a big red flag for me. Because my heart starts to race uncontrollably. I know i can not push in anyway during this time even if i have to go. being a women its easier to assist myself  by manually moving the fecal out. I also have to strip out of most of my close to keep cool and try to breath deep and slow either leaning on the wall or tipping my neck back. i now keep a fan handy to i can turn it on to help keep my temperature down. I have been rushed in so many times by way of ambulance to the ER room its crazy i have lost count. it will start by me sitting there, then i feel a tingling in the base of my neck. there was 2  times that i literally felt a lump move threw the side of my next fast then bam i was on the floor in the worst pain of my life. the first thing i say to the ambulance people is give me oxygen, this seems to help if its early enough. I have though i had a stroke on the toilet. I now get very scared to even go. when its so bad i fall of the toilet and continue to have a bowel movement while lying there is more then i can take. And there is nothing i can do about it.  This is the first place i have ever seen or read others going through the same thing.  So if anyone can help me with a answer i would be greatful

[Cmols]

Mt, was it the dicyclomine that made the headaches stop?  I believe that is what they just started my husband on for the same problem.  It worked yesterday then not today.  

Did you find you needed to take it a certain amount of time before your bowel movement for it to help?

Anything you can share would be appreciated!  We're 3 ct, an MRI and a cerebral angiography in already this week.  The headache on Sunday actually caused a brain bleed on top if all of this for us.

[GageG]

This may seem like a simple fix but I think you guys are just dehydrated. I had the same problem as all of you but I started drinking a ton just like I was told to do and now I haven't had a severe pounding  headache with bowel movements  since. It may work or may not I know it worked for me so why don't you all give it a try.

[teresaray]

that is odd because, i had been constipated before it happened to me, but, i was on the computer, all of a sudden i had to go, i was not straining, it was water with formed stool. and a light started coming in my eyes when my heart would beat, it done that about 10 times then from the back of my head, in the neck area, i had the most excruciating headache, everytime my heart beat, that felt like an annurism must feel, like the lining of my brain was going to blow   out of my head. it hurt so bad i had to yell for my husband to help me back to the bed, after about 45 minutes, it was somewhat better, my eyes felt weak, and i had a lite headache until the next day, but i lived, i didnt think i was going to. a ct scan the next day said everything was normal, no  bleeds, nothing.

[selmaS]

  While some HA's with a BM may be a food intolerance some can also be a neuro issue and u should go to the Dr and get checked.

I also had these HA's and was dx'd with Chiari malformation, it was not a food allergy. So do get checked  and do not assume nething.